Portuguese coaches’ and scouts’ perspectives on scouting processes in soccer: Psychological attributes and observation practices

Abstract

Talent identification and development in soccer is a multifaceted process that requires the evaluation of players across a range of attributes. This study compared the perspectives of Portuguese coaches and scouts regarding scouting practices and examined their observation and evaluation processes, with a particular focus on psychological attributes. Data were collected via an online questionnaire completed by 140 coaches and 30 scouts (N = 170). Participants responded to four main areas: (1) the age at which they believe players’ future performance can be predicted most accurately; (2) which attributes they consider most relevant for future performance; (3) how they structure their observations; and (4) whether and how they incorporate and evaluate psychological attributes in their routines. Results indicated no significant differences between coaches (15.3) and scouts(14.7) regarding the age at which they believed future performance could be predicted. When identifying relevant attributes, both groups most frequently mentioned personality and mental skills (k = 266), followed by tactical and perceptual–cognitive attributes (k = 187), technical attributes (k = 179), and, lastly, physical/physiological and motor skills (k = 146). Notably, scouts placed more emphasis on physical/physiological and motor skills. In terms of structuring observations, both coaches and scouts reported similar practices, but coaches described more frequent integration of psychological attributes. The findings suggest that psychological attributes are perceived as important in talent identification and should be embedded within broader, multidimensional evaluation frameworks.